On Tuesday, Verizon announced that it will launch HD Voice over LTE in the coming weeks. With this launch, Verizon is taking the first step toward shedding CDMA2000 as its primary network platform. Back in 2011, Verizon first indicated it would roll out VoLTE (Voice over LTE) on its network in 2012, transitioning away from CDMA within a couple of years of that. However, it backed away from that because it simply did not have the coverage to make that work, since CDMA networks cannot support SRVCC (Single Radio Voice Call Continuity) like GSM/UMTS networks can. Because of this, the call would drop outside of LTE coverage areas. Over the last few years, Verizon has rapidly deployed LTE on its Upper 700MHz C block (LTE Band 13) spectrum throughout the country. Assisted in part by its LTE in Rural America program, Verizon has matched its CDMA EvDO footprint with LTE, and has very nearly matched its CDMA 1X footprint.

The availability of VoLTE changes the equation for consumers a bit. Because Verizon’s Upper 700MHz C block spectrum rules mandate open access to the network for any compatible device, any LTE device that supports VoLTE must be allowed to operate on the network and be able to use VoLTE. We spoke to Debra Lewis of Verizon Corporate Communications about the matter, and we were assured that Verizon is following all the relevant standards for authentication and configuration for VoLTE. Like T-Mobile, Verizon is using AMR-WB for its LTE voice codec, and it will support HD Voice. However, Verizon is also launching the first set of RCS (Rich Communications Services) to go with it: video calling. VoLTE and RCS Video Calling are being dubbed as “Advanced Calling 1.0”. The company plans to roll out other RCS features like presence notification, instant messaging, and file transfers in the future. Unfortunately, despite the IP voice interconnection with T-Mobile made earlier this year, we were told that VoLTE HD Voice calls only work among Verizon Wireless customers for now.

Provided that the device is loaded with the requisite VoLTE software, any unlocked LTE phone with compatible bands will work. That means phones like the Sony Xperia Z2 (which supports Verizon’s LTE network on 700MHz and AWS but lacks support for the CDMA network) would be able to make calls on Verizon’s network once a software update by Sony is made to add VoLTE software to the phone. Phones that support VoLTE and support AWS (LTE band 4) would be able to work on Verizon’s AWS LTE network (primarily from spectrum acquired from the cable companies and branded XLTE), but not everywhere (since the primary band for Verizon LTE is on 700MHz Band 13).

This is a huge deal, as once VoLTE is available, all the shackles that Verizon has historically imposed on consumers in terms of device selection are effectively gone. It is only a matter of time before phone manufacturers pick up on this and start releasing unlocked phones capable of using Verizon’s VoLTE system. And most importantly, Verizon can now start rolling out phones that do not support its CDMA network, as it has for tablets for nearly a year now.

They still are the nation’s douchiest carrier, so I don’t see much of a change here. Even if I could take my phone to VZW, I wouldn’t.

http://gcomputer.net/ DarkGray Knight

Every carrier is pretty bad. The top 2 are the worst AT&T and Verizon, but at least Verizon covers where I live, AT&T doesn’t. I’d switch to a local cell provider, but their coverage is still not as good as Verizon in the area, and their coverage is not there when traveling.

Mike Palomba

I disagree, T-Mobile is a great carrier, they’re very consumer oriented. I just switched from sprint and they were always rude and not willing to help but everyone at T-Mobile has been nothing but helpful

http://gcomputer.net/ DarkGray Knight

If they had better coverage, I would switch to them.

Mike Palomba

Do you live in the city? In urban areas they have great coverage, but not in rural areas

http://gcomputer.net/ DarkGray Knight

I live in Wyoming, generally I’m in the city, but I drive to a lot of more remote locations and travel often enough. AT&T has horrible coverage in most of the areas I travel. Only Verizon seems to at least cover the major roads and most of the smaller towns.

Mike Palomba

Wow that’s terrible. I hate verizon when it comes to customer service. Well if you want to find out try that T-Mobile test drive thing.

Donna Hinton

T-Mobile has excellent Customer Service but what good does that do if their service is horrible and they are unable to fix the issue. Most of all my calls go to VM and my calls drop all of the time. I will venture to say that Verizon’s Network is the best out of all of the carriers. Note: TMobile’s service is on the IPhone is the worst of the worst.

dbvirago

Verizon was a great carrier for decades, but that ended a few months ago. I have been researching this for a few days as the same thing has happened to others. If you spend enough time searching, you will find a lot of people with the identical problem with Verizon suddenly getting poor reception. In every case, including mine, after going through their Q&A, you will end up being told you are in a variable coverage area and there’s nothing they can do, but sell you a $250 booster. I don’t know what changed with Verizon or why this is suddenly happening to users, but they aren’t saying. I can’t imagine, they did it on purpose to sell the extra hardware, but who knows. I live in metro Atlanta, so telling me I am in a ‘variable coverage area’ is ludicrous. What they don’t mention is that about the time the service went south, they sold off their towers for $16.5B

josh

You can say that again!

coldwater music

This makes me wonder what the world is drifting towards. They first want to get rid of the land lines but why? If you keep the landlines and there is a blackout you still have away to talk on the phones. Now VoLTE, are we drifting towards the Jetsons or towards Demolition Man where we are under the iron fist or Mr. Rogers

jimv1983

Um….what?

Zunalter

If Verizon wasn’t such a crappy carrier, I would be more excited about this. I live in BFE and so have really dismal cell service. Verizon is currently constructing a tower in my area, and I have to be honest that I am only sort of excited about it.

jimv1983

Verizon’s LTE network still isn’t nearly as big as its CDMA network so call coverage would drop with VoLTE. Plus, this would hurt battery life too much.

http://pharaohtechblog.blogspot.com/ Conan Kudo (ニール・ゴンパ)

Battery life problem goes away because CDMA and LTE don’t have to be simultaneously connected. Battery drain is nearly tripled because both LTE and CDMA are connected all the time. With VoLTE, CDMA is disconnected and you get better battery life.

As for coverage, Verizon’s LTE networks is nearly the same size as its CDMA 1X network. It already fully matches its CDMA EvDO footprint and surpasses it.

http://gcomputer.net/ DarkGray Knight

While that is nice in theory, the reality is the LTE network is not yet as wide as CDMA 1X.

http://pharaohtechblog.blogspot.com/ Conan Kudo (ニール・ゴンパ)

I didn’t dispute that. It’s nearly there, but not quite yet. Not much more coverage to go, though.

http://gcomputer.net/ DarkGray Knight

I guess I was just going with the current lack of coverage in areas that consistently are lacking even a decent 3x-1x coverage.

Carlos Castro

Everyone is complaining about the how the carrier treats the customer, but the fact is that with today’s access to information if you don’t make an effort to protect yourself as a customer, you are victimizing yourself. I was smart enough to know that unlimited data was too precious to give up so I refused to renew my contract with the lure of a shiny new phone (which of course would out live itself in a year or two). I kept my unlimited data (and unlimited tethering by the way) and have since purchased all of my handsets at full cash value. Now I NEVER worry about how much data I’m consuming. Work plus school plus entertainment (Netflix + Amazon Prime videos) puts me at somewhere between 150 to 200 GB (yes, gigabytes) per month at the price from a contract from 4 years ago. Everyone else had the same option but wanted a new phone at a subsidized cost. Where’s your iPhone 4 now suckers?

ebinrock

There’s one thing everybody’s missing with this VoLTE topic, something that nobody’s mentioned: whenever all the phone technology goes to VoLTE from CDMA (and away from GSM as well), will we have unlimited calling anymore? As the data plans are currently limited (except for those grandfathered in), will our calls be limited? Will we have to pay for more data when we reach our cap, as with other uses of LTE? Or will the model change where we can pay for an unlimited data plan again (albeit a very expensive plan, no doubt)? That would be a tremendous cost on top of the already expensive unlocked phone we’d undoubtedly want to buy. Looks like the carriers will ALWAYS have us draining our wallets for them, no matter what.

josh

When will Verizon get with the rest of the world and go GSM???????????????

ju22039ty

Never. They’re going LTE. Like everyone else.

Telveer

GSM is just as bad, and will go the way of CDMA. Everything will go over data in future. VoLTE FTW

AB Tech Spireon

How does that affect M2M such as GPS tracking devices?

AB Tech Spireon

How will that affect CDMA based M2M devices

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